We love being able to look back on Day One at our previous house (as clammy as the photos make us) – so we took a second to walk around our new house on Day One (in this case, the day all of our big furniture finally got moved over) and snapped these lovely photos. What do you guys think? Gorgeous, no? Our work here is done.

The living room:

The kitchen:

Other side of the kitchen:

The office:

The dining room:

The guest room:

The hall bathroom:

The spare room:

Clara’s room (here’s us frantically trying to get it ready so she had a place that felt like home – and a place to sleep).

This is her room as it looked a few hours later:

Words can’t describe how grateful I am that she’s so enamored with the place.

Here’s our bedroom on Day One, as I was screwing the headboard back into place. Quick tip: every gal needs an accidental bouffant whilst using a power drill.

As for moving, this time we tried a new approach since we had overlapping time at our last house and this one. Instead of needing to squeeze everything into one big truck and move all on one day (which we had to do last time) this time we got to take car-loads of things over every time we went there. So if we were laying flooring we took a load each day we worked on that.

It sure looked crazy, but for the small to medium stuff it seemed to work great. And it definitely cut down on bubble wrap and boxes since just driving a few miles in the car (instead of stuffing everything into a rocky moving van) was a lot lower pressure. You can just cram things into the car in a somewhat thoughtful way, without meticulously wrapping every mirror and frame. And not only was it faster to pack, but unpacking went more quickly and created less waste too. No box graveyard like last time!

We also did one evening of moving that we lovingly called Family Caravan, where John’s parents brought their larger cars over and we did a run to the new house with some bigger stuff like dining chairs and console tables. It was amazing how much we could transport in a 3-vehicle parade over to the new house.

But we still needed a big moving truck to transport large items (beds, dressers, the sectional, our dining table, two daybeds, a few big armchairs, etc). So we recruited some hired help that John’s sister had once used for a move: four guys to lug stuff with us. We didn’t task them with any box packing or furniture dis-assembly (we did that all in advance since we were paying them by the hour). And thanks to all that prep we had the big stuff over to the new house by lunch! So our budget way to use moving help would be to do 80% of it yourself and just hire the big guns for the large stuff – which is hopefully just a few hours of their time.

Not only did things go much faster, but it meant when they left we still had plenty of time and energy to start putting rooms together (we mainly focused on Clara’s so she could feel settled). Plus, John was still in hardwood floor recovery mode so he was grateful to be spared some manual labor. Oh and I knew we’d have moving luck on our side (wahoo, no ditches!) when our U-Haul had my home state of Jersey on it. Picture me doing a good luck fist pump all around the truck before we started loading. You know, as one is apt to do.

Oh and one of my favorite tips is to have small ziplock bags handy along with a sharpie. That way when you disassemble large furniture (John and I did that right before the guys showed up to help) you won’t get to the new house and say “uh, where are those screws… and what goes with what?” I just bagged them, labeled them, and shoved them into my purse. It’s a huge time saver, and a welcome stress saver after what could turn out to be a pretty long day of searching for nearly everything since your house is such a disaster area.

My second tip is to take time to soak it up. We posed for a few nerd-tastic photos throughout the process. It really helps to keep spirits up during a pretty tiring parade of carrying things, stopping to breathe, and carrying more things.

Bet you guys didn’t know I was a windowsill ninja.

So that was Day One and a few moving tips. And you’ll be relieved to know that: A) I’m no longer rocking an accidental bouffant, B) I’m also a top-of-the-car ninja, C) the sofa is put back together, the office no longer looks like a chair convention, but the house is still pretty nuts looking.

So excited for you guys! I love the whole process of finding a new place, the day of the move (not the packing) and then the thrill of finding that “perfect” place for everything! Enjoy the experience as we will too as we go along for the ride with you!

Packing makes me so grumpy. Whenever I move I just want to take my big stuff and the stuff I love the most, and throw EVERYTHING ELSE out, but then it gets so much more complicated than that with sentimental stuff and… drawers that are disorganized and… ughhh ahha

I know you guys are joking, but honestly, you have such amazing furniture and accessories, that the place already looks great! Thanks for the great tips on packing screws and such. I remember the pain of looking for those suckers from the last move. I will surely use your tip this time around. Can’t wait to see the changes as things progress! :O)

It is starting to get there guys! You are better than us last time we moved we used up all the time we had between taking possession of the house and our lease running out to rip out carpet, refinish the hardwoods, title the kitchen and bathroom and work with some buddies of my husband to get the plumbing run so we at least had a sink and the downstairs bathroom working. We ended up just buying a bunch of plastic tubs and cramming stuff into it so we could load the U-Haul down and get out of our rental in 2 days. I really am jealous of you guys.

I am also jealous of your photo taking abilities. Your homes always look so bright and full of light I would highly appreciate any posts in the future that would walk us though the setting you use on your camera and what not.

I’m so glad you guys make the most out of an event that is potentially very stressful! I personally dislike moving, after living in a different place for each of four years in college, then four more places after that! Also, are you thinking of going with a different color scheme for the guest room in this house? I’m liking the yellow rug with the painted bookshelf!

Yup, she still sleeps in a crib by her choice, and the doc said a move is a big enough adjustment on its own (so he said to keep her in her crib until she asks to be in her big girl bed and not use the move to make her sleep somewhere else). It was nice to put the daybed in her room too, so she can hopefully make an easy transition whenever she’s ready :)

Good luck! We moved last year when our oldest daughter was Clara’s age and had success talking up her new “big girl bed” and “big girl room”, which I know you already do. She was so excited to move and sleep in her new bed that we lucked out and she wanted to sleep in it from day one. PHEW. Now if we could just get her baby sister to sleep in the crib instead of her rocker… Hmm.

I don’t know how you guys did it. All 5 of my boys were climbing out of the crib before 18 months. I had to but them in a bed to avoid head collisions with the floor. So funny how different kids can be.

Sorry, I meant the lighting fixture in your former house (from your lighting collection, I think). Did you keep it or let it stay for the new owners? Love your lighting collection, btdubs. I’m eyeing the farmhouse pendant but can’t decide on a color. :)

honestly, I LOVE the way the dinning room looks already. I’, a sucker for taditional colors (but not over doing it, thank goodness you guys got ride of that blue everywhere else) and old world charm like those built ins. The wicker really makes the blue look fresh and renewed and not so old looking. Kind of breezy; but I can’t wait to see what you guys do with the space. Whether you’ll toss them or keep’m I know you’ll make it look great! So many ideas, so much fresh inspiration! Hola new beginnings! :D

Move in day is so exhilarating! Love that we could share it with you. Our last move in day was during an ice storm, so I’m glad to see yours was a little less eventful. Congratulations on the new house and Julianne is right , the place is already looking so much brighter and happy with all your lovely furniture and accessories.

So does this mean you haven’t seen Game of Thrones?? After you do, cheap entertainment is watching the fan video of reactions on You tube!! It took me 2 days to recover from this episode. I guess if I had read the books I wouldn’t be so… Uhm…. What’s a non-spoiler word??? Surprised?!! Lol!! DON’T peek! Just watch it without looking at anything online!! Ahhhhhhh!!!
Let’s just say it’ll take your mind off your blue trim! Hee!!

Sounds like you haven’t read the books, Sherry. I get it, they are a biiiiig committment, SO LONG. But honestly, worth it – I’m on my second read through (I’m trying to read them for details I missed the first time through). The show does an amazing job, but there is just some stuff they can’t do…the books give you a whole other level of detail.

And you guys luck out with very usable kitchen cabinets to paint!! Here the “country curve top” is common! We DID luck out this last time, thankfully, but there are some UGEE LEE cabinets out there!! :)

Not so much up close. Picture the bottom of all of them being chewed on by a dog and chunks inexplicably missing from a few of the drawers to the right of the sink (like someone intentionally gauged them out). So we’re not sure we can use them for the long term, but they definitely work for now! And we’d love to reuse them in the garage when John builds his workshop if we upgrade to newer cabs down the line (maybe in a year or two, nothing is going to happen right away since we like to live with a house for a while before doing big renos like that).

We looked into that in our second house but it was a ton (felt like for just a little more you could get all new cabinets and reconfigure things better, so that’s where we think we’ll end up). Time will tell!

I know this sounds weird but I used auto putty from Lowe’s to fill in holes and form new molding on our very old piano. Of course, I then painted it. It doesn’t shrink and is very hard. Sanding is difficult so I formed it exactly the way I wanted it to dry. I also used it to fill holes in my doors where the stoppers on the hinge broke through. It worked famously and saved me having to purchase doors. It is weird stuff with two putty like substances you mush together to activate. Our cabinet maker is the one who recommended it but be aware that it can not be stained. It must be painted. When you have nothing to lose, give it a try.

ARGH! That bear is KILLING us. We can’t see him (we think he’s served up regionally) and we have been trying to block him (we just don’t like ads that interfere with our content). He does sound hilarious though. I’d love to see him once, and then send him packing. Haha!

I actually tape (or somehow attach) the bags to whatever they came from. I actually used a curtian rod from an old apartment that I had not used for (5?)years (it happened to match one in my house)and was excited to see that the screws and bracket were still attached years later.

For some reason ya make moving seem easy, which I guess it could be when you take your time and you’re not in a rush.

Quick question, are ya planning on leaving the living room, and bedroom rugs that ways, since the one from your bedroom is in the living room, and the living room one in your bedroom. haha I don’t know if any one else notice.

Yes, we thought switching them worked better since room dimensions are different here (our bedroom’s big and our living room’s more cozy) whereas our last living room was GIANT (so the green rug was the only one that worked in there). So far we love the blue/gray rug with Karl. Can’t wait to share more pics as we go!

I know you guys move things around your house like crazy… but I’m loving the rug switch between the living room and master bedroom rugs! I hope you find plenty to enjoy about moving in. I think putting everything in its place it kind of fun- like shopping for your home all over again.

I second this…I LOVE the new placement of the rugs. That’s the advantage of having a whole-house color scheme (ala Sue the Napkin)…everything is interchangeable! The house is looking great already, and I can’t wait to see how it all comes together!

Oh, great tips, and lovin’ the pixs! Sherry and/or John, will you guys be changing the “brick ranch” note in your search engine look ups? They say “See what happened when two newlyweds renovated every inch of their old brick ranch and took on a slew of DIY projects on the cheap”? I mean, you added a second floor.

Hahah! That’s so funny because it’s so old that’s from our first house (we’ve been married 6 years now, so we’re not newlyweds anymore either!)! I don’t even know if we know how to change that – will have to dive into the code and see :)

If you’re in WordPress you can go to Setting–>General and there’s a tagline spot in there (second box down). Good place to start first. I think that’s where the search engines pick up the description! As always a change will take the search engine some time to catch up. If it’s not there, or you’re not on WP then….ppssh who knows.

Ok-I keep trying to get out of my friend who read the books-don’t ya think he’s gonna be a LITTLE PTS’d that his family was murdered whilst he “consummated” his marriage?? I mean really!! Oh, and I KNOW!! Either he (JS) comes back for her or she kills him for leaving… Or she kills him when he comes back for her!! Lol!! Didn’t ya think he was gonna scoop her up on the horse when he ride by?? :) Yeah-the fan reaction video is kinda funny!! The guys are drinking their drinks and staring, the women are freaking out… There are some f-bombs, so if clara is in earshot! Lol!

I was thinking the same thing about Karl. I am glad you are keeping him because we just made the plunge and bought the love seat with chaise version. We are loving him so far! (I can’t believe I am referring to my sofa as an actual person- I am blaming you guys for this! haha)

For each of our three moves, we’ve had 1/2 month overlaps and it’s always been a big help. For our last move, we bought maybe 8 boxes total and just kept reusing them before passing them along. We would fill up each box, bring it to the new place, and start putting stuff away (at least, what we could put away). For the stuff we couldn’t get in our car, we hired some great movers who got everything finished in about 2 hours! It was an incredibly easy process :)

Oh, how cute is that! The lemons look so real, and the pineapple is so adorable! A grocery stand would make for a great homemade present for Clara, and any future sibling she may have. Glad you guys are starting to get settled!

About

Hey, we're Sherry & John. This is where we chronicled 7 years of our lives as we fixed up 3 homes, had 2 children, became accidental authors and product designers, and shared our adventures (and misadventures) with the world. Now it's a time capsule of sorts, complete with nearly 3,000 posts, projects, and updates.